Michael Disputes with the Devil Over Moses' Body

Q.” In Jude 8 it says that Michael the Archangel disputed with the devil about the body of Moses. What does that mean?”

A. The purpose of the book of Jude is to warn believers about false teachers. Jude is pronounced “Yehudah” in Hebrew and it is where we get the name “Jew “ and “Jewish” in English. The book contrasts what happens to those who disbelieve the Torah, the Scriptures that Jude had. He wants believers to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints (Tzaddikim= the righteous ones) which included Torah observance. Faith is action and action is dead without obedience to God’s commandments. You don’t gain righteousness by keeping commandments. You believe God and that belief is” acted out” by doing what God said to do showing confidence which is what faith means. The first century believers all observed the Torah so that was included in his idea of “the faith” once delivered.

It has always been a part of “The Faith.” He then goes on to describe what happened to the angels who rebelled against God and how they are in darkness (power of their sin) and they will be judged someday. Sodom and Gomorrah is used as an example for those who disobey the Lord. Starting in v 8 he says that with all that evidence available people still revile the Lord. How do you do that today? By saying you don’t have to obey because “it’s been done away with” and “Sabbath has been changed to Sunday” or “I can eat pork and lobster because the Lord has made all foods clean” and all the other false doctrine out there today. False doctrine today is no different than false doctrine in the first century and that’s why I am bringing out examples that apply to us today. Nobody sees their false doctrine as false. But, it is no different than in Jude’s time and that is his point. The false teachers in his day are no different than the ones in Sodom 2000 before him, and no different than what the angels did 2000 years before that.

They may have committed a different sin, but it doesn’t matter. They did not believe. People who keep Sunday, eat pork, celebrate Christmas and neglect the biblical festivals, say the Law has been done away with don’t believe the Lord and it’s just that simple. Even the Messiah they believe in isn’t the one in the Scriptures because they say He is in favor of all of the above. These things are mentioned in v 8 by dreaming. They defile the flesh and reject authority (God’s word) and angelic majesties (the things belonging to God) by rejecting what it has said about keeping the commandments. Now, with all that in mind we come to your verse. This story is not mentioned anywhere in scripture. It may have been around in some form in other 1st century writings and is loosely found in others, but the Law and the Prophets do not have it. To mention things not found in scripture is not unusual. Paul mentions Jannes and Jambres in 1 Tim 3.8 but they are not mentioned in Exodus or anywhere. So what is going on?

This is probably a figurative story to illustrate what he has been saying up to this point. God’s ways will always be opposed by false teachers. The Torah is also known as “Moses” in the New Testament especially. Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses to their destruction. Gen 3.15 says the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman will have a hatred for one another. Satan wants to sit on the “mount of the assembly” (Isa. 14.13) to be worshipped which is the whole point of most theology today that is not Torah based. In Hebrew “mount of the assembly” is “har’moghed” or “armageddon” in English and that is where the devil tries to gather those that follow him (Rev 16.16). So, Michael (who is like God) is symbolic of Yeshua, the seed of the woman. The “body of Moses” is the body of the Torah that the devil has his “disputes” over.

He contested it in the Garden of Eden and has ever since. Jude introduces this story to illustrate that false teacher’s will dispute over Moses, or in keeping of the Law of God, like they always have. They do it today by saying you are “free from the Law” and “the law has been done away with” and so on. There is nothing new under the sun and then the rest of the book goes on to describe these false teachers and why they do it. Anyway, the story in v 9 is used to show that false teachers (devil) will dispute with God (Michael) about keeping the commandments ( the body of Moses) and we should avoid this and to remember what happened in the past when others tried to do this and failed.