The Unholy Trinity and the Wandering Stars Text: Jude 1:8-13
Introduction: The Perennial Rebellion
The book of Jude is a stick of dynamite tossed into the church parlor. It is short, it is potent, and it is designed to wake up the drowsy. Jude had wanted to write a pleasant letter about our common salvation, a letter full of warmth and shared comforts. But the Holy Spirit gave him a different assignment. The house was on fire. Certain men, long ago marked out for condemnation, had crept in unnoticed. They were turning the grace of God into a license for debauchery and were denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
We must not think this is a problem unique to the first century. The spirit of antichrist is not a one-trick pony. The costumes change, the vocabulary gets updated, but the rebellion is perennial. The errors Jude confronts are the same errors that plague the modern church, often dressed up in more sophisticated, therapeutic, or academic language. The core of the problem is a rejection of objective, revealed authority and the replacement of it with autonomous, internal authority. It is the ancient lie of the serpent: "Did God really say?" followed closely by, "You will be like God."
Jude has already given us three historical examples of God's swift judgment against rebellion: unbelieving Israel in the wilderness, fallen angels in chains, and Sodom and Gomorrah under a rain of fire and brimstone. God does not grade on a curve. He is not a doting grandfather who overlooks insolence. He is the holy, sovereign Lord, and He judges apostasy. Now, having laid that foundation, Jude turns his attention to the specific characteristics of the false teachers in their midst. He shows us what this rebellion looks like on the ground, in the life of the church. And he does not mince words.
The Text
Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and blaspheme glorious ones.
But Michael the archangel, when he, disputing with the devil, was arguing about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
But these men blaspheme the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.
Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have poured themselves into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted;
wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.
(Jude 1:8-13 LSB)
Autonomous Dreamers (v. 8)
Jude begins by identifying the source of their error and its three-fold manifestation.
"Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and blaspheme glorious ones." (Jude 1:8)
The fountainhead of their apostasy is "dreaming." This is not a reference to what happens when you eat spicy food before bed. This refers to their claim of having a direct, private pipeline to the divine that bypasses and supersedes God's revealed Word. They are trafficking in visions of their own hearts, not from the mouth of the Lord. This is the essence of all enthusiasm and gnosticism. It is the elevation of subjective experience over objective revelation. The modern equivalent is the man who says, "The Bible says X, but I feel in my heart that God is telling me Y." This is not spirituality; it is autonomy. It is setting up a rival magisterium in your own gut.
And notice the results of this dreaming. First, they "defile the flesh." Because they have rejected God's external standard, they have no basis for sexual morality. They likely held to an early form of Gnosticism, which taught that the spirit is all that matters and the body is an irrelevant prison. Therefore, what you do with your body has no spiritual consequence. This is a lie from the pit. The Christian faith is incarnational. Our bodies matter. They are temples of the Holy Spirit, and we are to glorify God in them. To defile the flesh is to defile His temple.
Second, they "reject authority." The Greek here is lordship. Having made themselves the ultimate authority, they naturally despise all other claims to authority. They reject the authority of the apostles, the authority of the Scriptures, and ultimately the authority of Christ Himself. This is the spirit of our age, an egalitarian rebellion against every form of hierarchy. But the universe is hierarchical. God is in charge, not us. He delegates authority to parents, to husbands, to elders, to magistrates. To reject all authority is to reject God's created order.
Third, they "blaspheme glorious ones." This most likely refers to angels, both good and evil. They speak evil of dignities, of powers in the spiritual realm they know nothing about. Their arrogance is boundless. They are spiritual bumpkins who have wandered into the throne room of the cosmos and are making rude noises. They have no fear, no reverence, no sense of their own creaturely smallness.
Angelic Humility vs. Human Arrogance (v. 9-10)
Jude then provides a stunning contrast to this prideful blasphemy.
"But Michael the archangel, when he, disputing with the devil, was arguing about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a blasphemous judgment, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you!'" (Jude 1:9)
This event is not recorded in the Old Testament, but was part of a tradition known to Jude's readers. The content of the tradition is what matters. Satan, the great tempter, likely wanted to take possession of Moses' body to set it up as an object of worship, to tempt Israel into idolatry. God had hidden Moses' grave for this very reason. Michael, one of the chief princes of Heaven, is dispatched to contend with him. And here is the point: Michael, in a direct confrontation with the very source of evil, does not act on his own authority. He is an archangel, but he knows his place in the chain of command. He does not rail against Satan or pronounce a curse in his own name. He defers to the ultimate authority. He says, "The Lord rebuke you!" He understands jurisdiction. Judgment belongs to God alone.
Now look at the contrast in verse 10:
"But these men blaspheme the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed." (Jude 1:10)
Michael, who understands the spiritual realm, is humble and reverent. These false teachers, who understand nothing of it, are arrogant and blasphemous. They mock what they are ignorant of. And the only things they do understand are their carnal appetites, their base instincts for food, drink, and sex. They operate on the level of "unreasoning animals." They have reduced themselves to their stomachs and their glands. And Jude tells us their end: the very things they know by instinct are the instruments of their destruction. Their lusts will consume them. They are on a path to ruin, led by their own appetites.
The Unholy Trinity of Rebellion (v. 11)
Jude now pronounces a solemn woe and traces the lineage of these apostates back to three infamous rebels in the Old Testament.
"Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have poured themselves into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah." (Jude 1:11)
This is a rogues' gallery, an unholy trinity of rebellion. First, they have gone "the way of Cain." What was the way of Cain? It was the way of self-willed religion. Cain rejected God's prescribed sacrifice and offered one of his own devising, the fruit of his own works. When God rejected his offering and accepted Abel's, Cain's pride turned to envy, and his envy turned to murderous rage. The way of Cain is the way of all false religion: it is proud, it is envious of true grace, and it is hateful toward the righteous.
Second, they have rushed headlong into "the error of Balaam." Balaam was a true prophet who loved money more than God. He was hired to curse Israel but was prevented by God. So, he gave King Balak a different strategy: entice the men of Israel into sexual immorality and idolatry, and God will curse them Himself. The error of Balaam is prostituting a spiritual gift for financial gain. It is the sin of the hireling, the televangelist who promises blessings for a "seed-faith" donation. These men are in it for the money.
Third, they have "perished in the rebellion of Korah." Korah was a Levite who led a rebellion against the authority of Moses and Aaron. His cry was essentially, "All the congregation is holy! Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?" It was the cry of egalitarian envy. He despised God's appointed authority and wanted a promotion that God had not given him. This is the sin of prideful ambition, of ecclesiastical insubordination. It is the spirit that refuses to submit to the eldership of a local church because "we are all ministers."
A Gallery of Emptiness (v. 12-13)
Jude concludes this section with a series of five powerful metaphors that describe the true nature of these men. The theme is emptiness, deception, and fruitlessness.
"These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts... clouds without water... autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea... wandering stars..." (Jude 1:12-13)
They are "hidden reefs" in the love feasts. On the surface, they are participating in the fellowship, but underneath they are a mortal danger, ready to shipwreck the faith of the unsuspecting.
They are "clouds without water." In a dry and thirsty land, clouds promise life-giving rain. These men promise spiritual refreshment, deep insights, and a higher knowledge. But they are empty. They are all talk, carried along by every new wind of doctrine, but they deliver nothing of substance.
They are "autumn trees without fruit." A fruit tree in autumn that has no fruit is a failure. It has failed in its one purpose. These men are not just fruitless now; they are "doubly dead," meaning dead at the root, and so "uprooted." They were never truly alive in Christ. They are spiritual deadwood, fit only for the fire.
They are "wild waves of the sea." They are full of chaotic energy and noise. They make a great show of passion and power, but all they produce is "their own shame like foam." Their activity is meaningless, leaving behind nothing but filth and debris.
Finally, they are "wandering stars." Ancient sailors navigated by the fixed stars. Wandering stars, or planets, were unreliable for navigation. These men present themselves as guides, as sources of light. But they are erratic, following their own course, and if you follow them, you will end up lost. And Jude tells us their final destination, the one place they can reliably guide you: "for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever."
Conclusion: Contend for the Faith
The warning could not be more stark. The church is not a playground; it is a battlefield. And the most dangerous enemies are not those outside the gates, but the traitors within. These men, with their dreams and their lusts, their arrogance and their greed, are not a new phenomenon. They are simply the latest iteration of the spirit of Cain, Balaam, and Korah.
What then is our duty? It is the one Jude gave us at the beginning of his letter. We are to "contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." The antidote to the poison of these dreamers is not to come up with our own, better dreams. The antidote is the objective, unchanging, authoritative Word of God. We must know the truth so that we can spot the lie. We must submit to God's authority so that we can recognize rebellion. And we must be men and women of fruit, rooted and grounded in Christ, so that we are not swept away by these empty clouds and wandering stars.
Their end is the blackness of darkness. But for those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ, our end is the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Let us therefore hold fast to Him, and to the faith He has delivered to us.