As human beings, we tend to forget. It is our nature to focus on immediate needs and push to the back of our mind what might seem “less urgent.” Jude recognized the same problem in the early church. They had forgotten their past and the consequence of disobeying God. In verses 5 and 6, he reminds his readers that the Lord hasn’t changed His mind regarding those who are disobedient to Him.

He gives two examples. The first points to the children of Israel after they had been delivered out of slavery in Egypt (Ex. 12:31–40). After 400 years of crying out to the Lord, they were finally set free. However, in Numbers 14 we read that they rebelled by not believing God regarding the Promised Land. The Lord stated, “In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun” (Num. 14:29–30).

The second example Jude mentions are disobedient angels who rebelled against God (v. 6). Jude may be referring to Genesis 6 which says, “When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose” (Gen. 6:1–2). If this is the case, these angels who were supposed to be watching over God’s creation decided to intermingle with humans. They were punished, being “kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day” (Jude 1:6). Clearly God expects His people to obey: “To obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Sam. 15:22).

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