Jude 1:13 Commentary and Bible Study

Jude quotes from Isaiah 57:20, ‘But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.' The mire and dirt naturally lie on the seabed covered over by the waters and out of sight. But when the sea rages and the waters are stirred up then dirt from down below is carried up to the surface. In the same way these men are driven by such powerful lusts that the filth of their hearts cannot be hidden. Instead they almost inevitably show what is in them by their sinful deeds. Their sin cannot be restrained but is sure to reveal itself. 'Wandering stars'. What is it that is most noticeable about the stars? Daniel is told, 'Those who are wise shall shine like the stars for ever and ever’ (Daniel 12:3). The Scripture calls our attention to the stability of the stars. They are fixed so that as we look up on a clear night we see the same configuration that our parents saw and generations before them. But these are wandering stars, they cannot be counted on to keep their place. Those who travel by sea in past times use the stars to guide them just because they could depend on them to be constant when all around them in the oceans was in a state of flux. But wandering stars are useless to guide anyone. Who knows where they will appear next? Maybe their position can be calculated, but they are not the sort of stars used for guidance by ordinary seafarers. In the same way, these apostates will not keep their position among the people of God but soon plunge to their destruction. Only God can give stability to unstable and sinful men and women. Self-appointed stars will not remain in place. The amazing privilege of the people of God is that he has appointed each one an eternal place in his presence from which nothing can move them. When every apostate has fallen from his position, then the Lord's people will still be shining like the stars for ever and ever.But these will not shine. They are reserved for the blackness of darkness for ever. They will not have a place in the presence of God who is light. They belong to the realm of darkness, of ignorance, of sin, of hell, and there they will be sent. The darkness is already prepared by God. The delay in the execution of punishment does not indicate any change of mind on his part for he has already appointed a day when they will be sent there.