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What is the meaning of Jude 1:9?

  • Jude 1:9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

The phrase ‘the Lord rebuke thee’ spoken by Michael refers to a vision given to Zechariah.

  • Zechariah 3:2 And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?

This was to do with the return of Israel from the Babylonian captivity under Joshua the High priest and Zerubbabel the governor. They had returned with Ezra and begun to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem.

  • Ezra 4:1-5 Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the LORD God of Israel; 2 Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither. 3 But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the LORD God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us. 4 Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, 5 And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

This opposition is personified in the vision of Zechariah as ‘Satan’. Satan is a Hebrew word which means adversary. The adversary in context is not the fallen angel of Christian mythology but the ‘people of the land’ who opposed the Jews’ rebuilding of the Temple.

The ‘body of Moses’ describes those Jews who returned to the land with Joshua and Zerubbabel, to rebuild the Temple and restore the observance of the Law given through Moses. The adversaries were trying tyo prevent this.

I hope you find this helpful.

God bless,
Glenn