An Introduction to the Book of Jude

After only a week of blogging, I've decided to start a series on the sixty-fifth book of the Bible, Jude. I did a short study of the book shortly after I accepted Christ, and was tremendously blessed by it. The doctrine that is taught in this single-chaptered book is essential for the Christian. Jude, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes of the Christian battle, something that I think most believers fail to realize that they are even a part of. The "Average Joe" Christian thinks (directly because of a lack of Biblical knowledge) that the battle against God and Satan is something that we have no part in, and that we have absolutely no control over what goes on. Satan has deceived us into thinking that the fighting is done only by God and the angels.

There is a story in the Old Testament that is a true "eye-opener". (That's supposed to be a cheesy joke. You'll see why.) It is found in II Kings 6:8-17. The Israelites are fighting against the Syrians, and during the battle the king of Syria sends a huge army that encamps the Israelites. Well, the servant of Elisha, God's prophet to Israel, wakes up and as you could imagine, is scared silly. He finds his master, and asks him what he expects to do. Elisha responds by saying "Fear not: for they that [be] with us [are] more than they that [be] with them." To the servant, that response made no sense. Most of the Israelites were probably sleeping! He had risen early, so the men of the camp probably had another hour or so of rest yet. Even if he did crawl around a shake everybody, he knew that they had nowhere near the amount of equipment as the Syrians. To the eye of this mortal man, the battle looked as though it would be impossible to triumph.

But the man of God didn't see it the way that his servant did. God had given him a different nature of sight. When Elisha looked out at the opposing force, He saw something that no one else could see. God showed him the masses of his Father's soldiers, and boy was there a lot of em'! It says that "the mountain [was] full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." He prays that his servant can see the countless number of forces on the Lord's side.

The Bible teaches that each and every Christian has the obligation to fight against Satan. We are to wake up every morning realizing that we are going to step onto the enemy's territory. Sadly, many of us pitifully take no armor. We rather have an extra hour of sleep, then have our quiet time in the morning. We go into battle naked, without any form of protection whatsoever. Then, surely enough, we are ripped apart by Satan. He tempts us to sin, and we not having the vital Ephesians 6 armor, are brutally defeated.

This is no doubt a major problem. If the United States military started going into battle with no clothing, our country would go into an uproar. If every morning when our soldiers woke-up, they felt that they were too busy to put their gear on, we would look like a bunch of outright fools. The same way you are foolish if you get up in the morning and don't have your quiet time alone speaking with God. We need to speak with our "Commander" to get the battle plan for the day.

Through the Bible, God gives us instruction on how to live our lives. He teaches us how to deal with any possible circumstance that may come our way. God is omniscient. He knows the deceitful tactics of Satan, and has given us command on how to win each and every one of them. Having victory is as simple as obeying what God says. He will never have bad judgment on what to do in a situation. He lived as a man here on earth, and had the most victorious life of anyone in all of history. He did not, and could not sin, but He still had to deal with the temptations of the Devil. Along with being one-hundred percent God, He was one-hundred percent man. He is the best One to speak to concerning spiritual warfare. If you want to learn how to do something, you talk to the person who does it best.

This is the general theme of the book of Jude. To fight a good fight, and be prepared for battle. Through this series I would like to show you the way that Jesus handled warfare, and how we can take these principles and apply them to our daily lives.

As a closing thought, I think that the location of this book is very interesting. It is second to last. I think that this may just have something to it. God placed it just before Revelation. It is a concise final warning to us. God chose to tell us that we need to be taking our place in this spiritual battle, as His "last words" before the Revelation period.

My prayer is that God would be able to communicate His truth through me as we begin this study of one of my favorite books of God's Word. There is not a Christian on the face of this earth who would be unable to benefit from this study. We all are part of the greatest battle in all of eternity.