Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jude 1:2
Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
2. Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied ] The salutation corresponds with that of 1Pe 1:2 ; 2Pe 1:2, with the substitution of “mercy” for “grace” (the two are united in 1Ti 1:2; 2Ti 1:2; Tit 1:4), and the addition, as in the latter passages, of “peace.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied – This is not quite the form of salutation used by the other apostles, but it is one equally expressive of an earnest desire for their welfare. These things are mentioned as the choicest blessings which could be conferred on them: mercy – in the pardon of all their sins and acceptance with God; peace – with God, with their fellow-men, in their own consciences, and in the prospect of death; and love – to God, to the brethren, to all the world. What blessings are there which these do not include?
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jud 1:2
Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
Mercy, peace, and love multiplied
I. Mercy.
1. Pardoning mercy.
2. Sustaining mercy.
3. Preserving mercy.
4. Restraining mercy.
5. Supplying mercy.
6. Restoring and sanctifying mercy.
7. Glorifying mercy.
II. Peace.
1. Internal peace–a holy, tranquil calm.
2. External peace. Christ is the King of peace. Our lives must be peace, our lips will breathe peace.
III. Love.
1. The love of God towards us.
2. The love of ourselves to God. Surely this needs to abound! How cold it is, how poor and deficient!
3. Love to one another. This is the evidence of our love to Him. (Homilist.)
Spiritual blessings best
1. Spiritual blessings are the best blessings we can wish to ourselves and others. It is true, nature is allowed to speak in prayer, but grace must be heard first.
2. Observe the aptness of the requests to the persons for whom he prayeth. Those that are sanctified and called have still need of mercy, peace, and love. They need mercy, because we merit nothing of God, neither before grace received nor afterward. Our obligation to free grace never ceaseth. We need also more peace. There are degrees in assurance as well as faith. There is a temperate confidence, and there are ravishing delights, so that peace needs to be multiplied also. And then love, that being a grace in us, it is always in progress. In heaven only it is complete. Take it for love to God; there we cleave to Him without distraction and weariness or satiety. God in communion is always fresh and new to the blessed spirits. And take it for love to the saints; it is only perfect in heaven, where there is no ignorance, pride, partialities, and factions.
3. Observe the aptness of these requests to the times wherein He prayed, when religion was scandalised by loose Christians, and carnal doctrines were obtruded upon the Church. In times of defection from God, and wrong to the truth, there is great need of mercy, peace, and love. Of mercy, that we may be kept from the snares of Satan. And we need peace and inward consolations, that we may the better digest the misery of the times; and love, that we may be of one mind, and stand together in the defence of the truth.
4. Note the aptness of the blessings to the persons to whom He prayeth. Here are three blessings that do more eminently suit with every person of the Trinity; and I do the rather note it, because I find the apostle elsewhere distinguishing these blessings by their proper fountains, as Rom 1:7. So here is mercy from God the Father, who is called the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort (2Co 1:3), and peace from the Son, for He is our peace (Eph 2:14), and love from the Spirit (Rom 5:5), The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. Thus you see every person concurreth to our happiness with His distinct blessing.
5. How aptly these blessings are suited among themselves: first mercy, then peace, and then love. (T. Manton.)
Holy arithmetic
A trinity of blessings is often to be met with in Gods Word. It is Gods happiness to crown all His people with goodness. May this trio of blessings be given to each one of us, and be multiplied. Gods gifts always come in company. He is God, and gives as a God. Man, indeed, has limited means, and so must be limited in his gifts.
I. We have a sum in addition. As Christians we must never be content with the measure of our grace. Do not be satisfied to remain dwarf trees, but seek to be growing higher and higher, and at the same time sending your roots deeper and deeper.
1. The first figure in this sum is mercy, and it is a very high number indeed. It stands foremost, for it is the chief of Gods dealings with us, whereby He pities us in our helplessness. We have already received much, but we are to add to it: for He hath not dealt with us after our sins, but favour has been shown to the undeserving, mercy to those who are full of sin. He has shown not only clemency in bestowing pardon, but His bountiful mercy whereby He supplies sufficiently our wants. So that whatever we need let us seek the stream bearing on its tide blessings for our souls to-day.
2. Then add to mercy peace. What a glorious numeral is this! Now are we reconciled to God through the death of His dear Son. The enmity of our hearts has been slain, and it is our delight to be in His company. We want to have more of this peace; how shall we gain it? Only by seeking to hold more communion with our God. If this fair flower is to grow within our hearts the dew of heaven must fall upon it during the hours of calm fellowship with God. We must dwell in Him and He in us.
3. Yet again, there is another figure to add, and it is love. Many have got a little of this treasure; would to God all had more. Love lies smouldering in our hearts. O breath Divine, blow these sparks into burning fires! Grace changes all within us, for while we receive such mercy and enjoy such peace from the hands of our loving Lord we feel we must love in return.
II. Now we come to our surf in multiplication. If I want to increase rapidly let me have the multiplication table, and let it be by compound multiplication too. Mercy, and peace, and love, multiplied by mercy, and peace, and love, which have been multiplied. Is this a hard sum? God can help us to do it if we also help ourselves.
1. The first thing that affords aid is memory. Think of the mercies of yesterday, put them down, then multiply them by the mercies of to-day, and so on and on, meditating upon the favours of years past, and you will find by this mental exercise that the mercy you now enjoy will be multiplied. And memory will refresh you concerning peace too. Recollect the morning of bright joy which followed the nights of sadness. Love, too, must be remembered if it is to be multiplied. Review all the tokens received in the past, all the choice souvenirs.
2. Another help we may have is mutual intercourse. As a boy at school runs to another older and wiser than himself when a sum is hard, and he needs help in doing it, so should Christians endeavour to find counsel and support from intercourse with their fellow-saints.
3. But the very best way is to go to the Master. If the sum is difficult, it may be well to take down the exercise-book and see the examples already worked out. He is plenteous in mercy. Here, then, shall you find a way out of your difficulty. If you cannot multiply, He will do it for you; He is the Prince of Peace, submit yourself to His gentle reign, and peace shall be yours. Dwell in the atmosphere of His love and this grace shall be more and more in you.
III. Now, a sum in practice, and a very short one too. Unto you who have been called, sanctified, and preserved, are these words of exhortation sent. Be merciful, for Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Be peaceful, for Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Be loving, for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Mercy:–
1. Mercy can be attributed to God.
(1) As it signifies a promptitude of the will to succour the miserable.
(2) As it signifies Gods actual helping and relieving us in our distresses.
2. God is merciful–
(1) With a preventing mercy.
(2) With a forgiving mercy.
(3) With accepting mercy, taking in good part the desires of the soul when it finds not to perform.
(4) With re-accepting mercy; looking upon a returning prodigal as a son; pitying as a father, not punishing as a judge.
(5) With providing mercy (Psa 23:1-6.).
(6) With directing mercy in our doubts (Psa 73:24).
(7) With sustaining mercy (Psa 94:18).
(8) With quickening; enlivening mercy to any holy duty (Php 4:13).
(9) With restoring mercy; and that not only from sin and miseries, but even by them.
(10) With crowning mercy when He brings us to heaven.
3. The properties of Gods mercy.
(1) Full.
(2) Free.
Lessons:
1. How unbeseeming a sin is pride in any that live upon mercy!
2. The duty of contentment in our greatest wants or smallest receipts.
3. The impiety and folly of those that abuse mercy.
4. Great is the heinousness of sin, that can provoke a God of much mercy, to express much severity.
5. It should be our care to obtain the best and choicest of mercies.
6. How little should any that have this God of mercy for theirs, be dismayed with any misery!
7. It is our duty and dignity to imitate God in showing mercy. (W. Jenkyn, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. Mercy unto you] For even the best have no merit, and must receive every blessing and grace in the way of mercy.
Peace] With God and your consciences, love both to God and man, be multiplied-be unboundedly increased.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Mercy unto you; which is the fountain of reconciliation, and all the grace vouchsafed you: see 1Ti 1:2; 2Ti 1:2; Tit 1:4.
Love; either he means Gods love to them, or their love to God and each other.
Be multiplied; mercy in the effects of it, peace in the sense of it, and either the love of God in the manifestation of it, or their love to God and their neighbours in the degrees and exercise of it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Mercy in a time of wretchedness. Therefore mercystands first; the mercy of Christ(Jud1:21).
peace in the HolyGhost(Jud1:20).
love of God(Jud1:21).The three answer to the divine Trinity.
bemultiplied in you and towards you.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Mercy unto you, and peace and love be multiplied. In this salutation the apostle wishes for a multiplication of “mercy”, from God the Father, by whom these persons were sanctified: mercy is a perfection in God; and shows itself in a special manner towards the elect, in the covenant of grace, in the provision of Christ as a Saviour, in the mission of him into this world, in redemption by him, in the forgiveness of sin, in regeneration, and in their whole salvation; and the multiplication of it intends an enlarged view and fresh application of it, which they sometimes stand in need of, as under desertions, when they want the sense and manifestation of it to them; and under temptations and afflictions, when they need sympathy and compassion; and when they fall into sin they stand in need of the fresh discoveries and application of pardoning mercy to them. Moreover, herein is wished for a multiplication of “peace” from Christ, in whom these chosen ones were preserved; and may design a fresh and enlarged view of peace being made for them by his blood, and an increase of conscience peace in their own hearts, as the effect of it; and may include peace, and an abundance of it, among themselves, as well as all prosperity, both external, internal, and eternal: likewise in the salutation, “love”, and a multiplication of it is wished for from the Spirit of God, by whom they were called; and may be understood of the love with which God loved them; and which may be said to be multiplied, when it is gradually shed abroad in their hearts by the Spirit, and they are by degrees led into it more and more, and the acts of it are drawn out and set before them one after another, and fresh manifestations of it are made unto them; as in afflictive providences, after the hidings of God’s face, and under temptations: and it may design the love with which they love God, which may be increased and made to abound more and more.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Be multiplied (). First aorist passive optative of as in 1Pet 1:2; 2Pet 1:2.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Love. Peculiar to Jude in salutation.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Mercy to you” – Jude’s Christian greeting to the sanctified opens with an expression of the Divine attribute of mercy – compassion, longsuffering, or goodwill which he desired from God upon the sanctified believers – The merciful are to obtain mercy from God, and show mercy to men. Mat 5:7; 2Co 1:3; God is rich in it, Eph 2:4. We should show it Jas 2:13. See also Mic 6:8.
2) “And peace to you” – Jude desires, for the believer, abiding peace from God, thru His Spirit, Joh 14:27; Joh 16:33; Rom 5:1; 1Th 5:13. Believers are to be at peace among themselves and pursue it with all men. Heb 12:14.
3) “And love to you” – These three Divine attributes, mercy, peace, and love – Jude desired to increase, to multiply, in and among God’s sanctified, preserved, and called ones in Jesus Christ – It is a good thought that the older each Child of God grows the more the virtue, the attributes of mercy, peace and love can and should grow, multiply and increase in his life. As one grows in each of these attributes he becomes more like Jesus, sanctified and fit vessel for His service. Joh 13:34-35; Joh 14:15, Rom 12:9-10.
Rom 13:8 “Owe no man anything, but to love.”
Rom 13:10 “Love worketh not ill.-
2Co 5:14 “The love of Christ constraineth us.”
Heb 13:1 “Let brotherly love continue.”
1Jn 4:19 “We love Him, because He first loved us.”
ILLUSTRATIONS:
MERCY
Edmund Spencer 1550-1599 wrote:
“Who Will I not mercy unto others shew, How can he mercy ever hope to have?”
PEACE
Aesop – Floruit 550 B.C.
“Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear”
– The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse.
LOVE
Attributed to Elizabeth Barrett Browning
The Sweetest lives are those to duty wed, Whose deeds, both great and small, Are close-knit strands of an unbroken thread, Where love ennobles all.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
2. Mercy to you. Mercy means nearly the same as grace in the salutations of Paul. Were any one to wish for a refined distinction, it may be said that grace is properly the effect of mercy; for there is no other reason why God has embraced us in love, but that he pitied our miseries. Love may be understood as that of God towards men, as well as that of men towards one another. (189) If it be referred to God, the meaning is, that it might increase towards them, and that the assurance of divine love might be daily more confirmed in their hearts. The other meaning is, however, not unsuitable, that God would kindle and confirm in them mutual love.
(189) As mercy is that of God, so it is more consistent to consider “peace” and “love’’ to be those of God: “may the mercy” of God, “and the peace” of God, “and the love” of God, “be increased (or multiplied) to you” — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
‘Mercy to you and peace and love be multiplied.’
The threefold description of their state (called, beloved and kept) is followed by a threefold prayer for mercy, peace and love to be multiplied to them. This idea of the multiplication of God’s blessings is found also in 1Pe 1:2; 2Pe 1:2.
‘Mercy.’ Jude stresses the mercy of God. Here God’s mercy is seen as ‘multiplied’ towards us. God does not just give, He multiplies His giving. It is only because of His continuing mercy that we can continually be forgiven and can walk with Him. And this mercy reaches out into the future for we are told in Jud 1:21 to ‘look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life’. And in Jud 1:22-23 he will stress that in return God’s people must continually show mercy towards those who are going astray, by seeking to win them back from the position into which they are falling. But the mercy being described here in Jud 1:2 is a present continuing mercy, and it is from God.
Mercy is the continual need of the people of God, for we are an awkward and rebellious people, and are ourselves often so unmerciful. But the Scriptures tell us that we have received mercy (Tit 3:5; 1Pe 1:3), and continually receive it as it multiplied towards us, and so we must show mercy (Jud 1:22-23), for it is the merciful who will finally enjoy mercy (Jud 1:21; Mat 5:7).
‘Peace.’ Peace is ever central to the Christian message. Having obtained peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by being accounted righteous by faith (Rom 5:1), we can continually experience His peace, ‘peace from God’, in our hearts, the peace which passes all understanding, which guards our hearts and thoughts sin Christ Jesus (Php 4:7). And thus we can be at peace one with another (Eph 2:14-18).
‘Love.’ Mercy and peace result from God’s abundant and multiplied love, and are to produce love within us. So Jude emphasises His love for us. And that is why we are to keep ourselves in the love of God and thus we shall enjoy the full experience of His mercy (Jud 1:21).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jud 1:2 Comments – In a similar way that the early apostles were instructed by Jesus to let their peace come upon the home of their host (Mat 10:13), so did Paul the apostle opening every one of his thirteen New Testament epistles with a blessing of God’s peace and grace upon his readers. Peter did so in his two Epistles, John did so in his second and third epistles. Now Jude does the same in his short epistle. Mat 10:13 shows that you can bless a house by speaking God’s peace upon it.
Mat 10:13, “And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you.”
This practice of speaking blessings upon God’s children may have its roots in the Priestly blessing of Num 6:22-27, where God instructed Moses to have the priests speak a blessing upon the children of Israel. We see in Rth 2:4 that this blessing became a part of the Jewish culture when greeting people. Boaz blessed his workers in the field and his reapers replied with a blessing.
Rth 2:4, “And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless thee.”
We also see this practiced by the king in 2Sa 15:20 where David says, “mercy and truth be with thee.”
2Sa 15:20, “Whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? seeing I go whither I may, return thou, and take back thy brethren: mercy and truth be with thee.”
So, this word of blessing was a part of the Hebrew and Jewish culture. This provides us the background as to why Paul was speaking a blessing upon the church at Rome, especially that God would grant them more of His grace and abiding peace that they would have otherwise not known.
So, this word of blessing was a part of the Hebrew and Jewish culture. This provides us the background as to why Jude was speaking a blessing upon his recipients, especially that God would grant them more of His grace and abiding peace that they would have otherwise not known. In faith, we too, can receive this same blessing into our lives. Jude actually pronounces and invokes a blessing of divine grace and peace upon his readers with these words, “Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied..” I do not believe this blessing is unconditional, but rather conditional. In other words, it is based upon the response of his hearers. The more they obey these divine truths laid forth in this epistle, the more God’s grace and peace is multiplied in their lives. We recall how the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, with six tribes standing upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people and six tribes upon Mount Ebal to curse the disobedient (Deu 27:11-26). Thus, the blessings and curses of Deu 28:1-68 were placed upon the land. All who obeyed the Law received these blessings, and all who disobeyed received this list of curses. In the same way Jude invokes a blessing into the body of Christ for all who will hearken unto the divine truths of this epistle.
We see this obligation of the recipients in Beck’s translation of 2Pe 1:2, “As you know God and our Lord Jesus, may you enjoy more and more of His love and peace. ”
Jud 1:2 Comments – Every believer’s sanctification is a long and enduring process that requires God pouring out his mercy, peace and love upon His children. We reciprocate with the same by offering mercy, peace and love towards one another as we grow in faith.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
I beg to detain the reader at this verse, to observe to him, that these Apostolic greetings, ought not to be considered, as it is to be feared they too frequently are, so many words of course. They are like so many prayers, as well as benedictions of the Apostles, and cannot be prized by the Church too highly. Mercy from the Father, Peace in and from Jesus Christ, and Love in and by the Holy Ghost, very sweetly follow what was said before as the fruits and effects of those glorious acts, of the Holy Three in One, in Covenant manifestations.
Reader! it will be both your mercy and mine, if we find those daily fruits, in our daily bread, of the everlasting love of Jehovah to his Church in Christ! God, in his Threefold character of Persons, is the fountain of all mercy, peace, and love. And sweet, yea, very sweet it is, when God the Holy Ghost makes known these things to our joy; by his revealing them to us with his gracious influences, in directing our hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ. (2Th 3:5 ) I would pray for those gracious love-tokens of the Holy Ghost, that I may live in the enjoyment of the mercy, peace, and love of the whole Persons of the Godhead. But while I enjoy the fruits, I would pray yet more, to live upon the Cause. While I relish the gift, I would infinitely more love, and value the Giver.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
VIII
BALAAM: HIS IMPORTANT PROPHECIES, HIS CHARACTER, AND HIS BIBLE HISTORY
Numbers 22-24; Num 31:8
These scriptures give you a clue to both Balaam’s history and character: Numbers 22-24; Num 31:8 , and especially Num 31:16 ; Deu 23:4-5 ; Jos 13:22 ; Jos 24:9-10 ; Mic 6:5 ; Neh 13:2 ; Jud 1:2 ; 2Pe 2:15 ; and, most important of all, Rev 2:14 . Anybody who attempts to discuss Balaam ought to be familiar with every one of these scriptures.
Who was Balaam? He was a descendant of Abraham, as much as the Israelites were. He was a Midianite and his home was near where the kinsmen of Abraham, Nahor and Laban, lived. They possessed from the days of Abraham a very considerable knowledge of the true God. He was not only a descendant of Abraham and possessed the knowledge of the true God through traditions handed down, as in the case of Job and Melchizedek, but he was a prophet of Jehovah. That is confirmed over and over again. Unfortunately he was also a soothsayer and a diviner, adding that himself to his prophetic office for the purpose of making money. People always approach soothsayers with fees.
His knowledge of the movements of the children of Israel could easily have been obtained and the book of Exodus expressly tells that that knowledge was diffused over the whole country. Such a poem as Jacob’s dying blessing on his children would circulate all over the Semitic tribes, and such an administration as that of Joseph would become known over all the whole world, such displays of power as the miracles in Egypt, the deliverance at the Red Sea and the giving of the law right contiguous to the territory of Balaam’s nation make it possible for him to learn all these mighty particulars. It is a great mistake to say that God held communication only with the descendants of Abraham. We see how he influenced people in Job’s time and how he influenced Melchizedek, and there is one remarkable declaration made in one of the prophets that I have not time to discuss, though I expect to preach a sermon on it some day, in which God claims that he not only brought Israel out of Egypt but the Philistines out of Caphtor and all peoples from the places they occupied (Amo 9:7 ). We are apt to get a very narrow view of God’s government of the human race when we attempt to confine it to the Jews only.
Next, we want to consider the sin of Balaam. First, it was from start to finish a sin against knowledge. He had great knowledge of Jehovah. It was a sin against revelation and a very vile sin in that it proceeded from his greed for money, loving the wages of unrighteousness. His sin reached its climax after he had failed to move Jehovah by divinations, and it was clear that Jehovah was determined to bless these people, when for a price paid in his hand be vilely suggested a means by which the people could be turned from God and brought to punishment. That was about as iniquitous a thing as the purchase of the ballots in the late prohibition election in Waco, for the wages of unrighteousness. His counsel was (Num 31:16 ) to seduce the people of Israel by bringing the Moabitish and Midianite evil women to tempt and get them through their lusts to attend idolatrous feasts.
In getting at the character of this man, we have fortunately some exceedingly valuable sermon literature. The greatest preachers of modern times have preached on Balaam, and in the cross lights of their sermons every young preacher ought to inform himself thoroughly on Balaam. The most famous one for quite a while was Bishop Butler’s sermon. When I was a boy, everybody read that sermon, and, as I recall it, the object was to show the self-deception which persuaded Balaam in every case that the sin he committed could be brought within the rules of conscience and revelation, so that he could say something at every point to show that he stood right, while all the time he was going wrong.
Then the great sermon by Cardinal Newman: “The dark shadow cast over a noble course by standing always on the ladder of advancement and by the suspense of a worldly ambition never satisfied.” He saw in Balaam one of the most remarkable men of the world, high up on the ladder and the way to the top perfectly open but shaded by the dark shadow of his sin. Then Dr. Arnold’s sermon on Balaam, as I recall, the substance being the strange combination of the purest form of religious belief with action immeasurably below it. Next the great sermon by Spurgeon with seven texts. He takes the words in the Bible, “I have sinned,” and Balaam is one of the seven men he discusses. Spurgeon preached Balaam as a double-minded man. He could see the right and yet his lower nature turned him constantly away from it, a struggle between the lower and higher nature. These four men were the greatest preachers in the world since Paul. I may modestly call attention to my own sermon on Balaam; that Balaam was not a double-minded man; that from the beginning this man had but one real mind, and that was greed and power, and he simply used the religious light as a stalking horse. No rebuff could stop him long. God might say, “You shall not go,” and he would say, “Lord, hear me again and let me go.” He might start and an angel would meet him and he might hear the rebuke of the dumb brute but he would still seek a way to bring about evil. I never saw a man with a mind more single than Balaam.
I want you to read about him in Keble’s “Christian Year.” Keble conceives of Balaam as standing on the top of a mountain that looked over all those countries he is going to prophesy about and used this language:
O for a sculptor’s hand,
That thou might’st take thy stand
Thy wild hair floating in the eastern breeze,
Thy tranc’d yet open gaze
Fix’d on the desert haze,
As one who deep in heaven some airy pageant aeea.
In outline dim and vast
Their fearful shadows cast
The giant forms of empires on their way
To ruin: one by one
They tower and they are gone,
Yet in the Prophet’s soul the dreams of avarice stay.
That is a grand conception. If he just had the marble image of a man of that kind, before whose eyes, from his lofty mountain pedestal were sweeping the pageants of mighty empires and yet in whose eyes always stayed the dreams of avarice. The following has been sculptured on a rock:
No sun or star so bright
In all the world of light
That they should draw to Heaven his downward eye:
He hears th’ Almighty’s word,
He sees the Angel’s sword,
Yet low upon the earth his heart and treasure lie.
That comes nearer giving a true picture of Balaam. That shows you a man so earth bound in his heart’s desire, looking at low things and grovelling that no sun or star could lift his eye toward heaven. Not even God Almighty’s word could make him look up, without coercion of the human will.
Now, you are to understand that the first two prophecies of Balaam came to him when he was trying to work divinations on God. In those two he obeys as mechanically as a hypnotized person obeys the will of the hypnotist. He simply speaks under the coercive power of God. In these first two prophecies God tells him what to say, as if a mightier hand than his had dipped the pen in ink and moved his hand to write those lines.
At the end of the second one when he saw no divination could possibly avail against those people, the other prophecies came from the fact that the Spirit of the Lord comes on him just like the Spirit came on Saul, the king of Israel, and he prophesied as a really inspired man. In the first prophecy he shows, first, a people that God has blessed and will not curse; second, he is made to say, “Let me die the death of the righteous and let my, last end at death and judgment be like his.” That shows God’s revelation to that people. The second prophecy shows why that is so: “God is not a man that he should repent.” “It is not worth while to work any divination. He has marked out the future of this nation.” Second, why is it that he will not regard iniquity in Jacob? For the purpose he has in view he will not impute their trespasses to them. The prophecy stops with this thought, that when you look at what this people have done and will do, you are not to say, “What Moses did, nor Joshua did, nor David,” but you are to say, “What God hath wrought!”
The first time I ever heard Dr. Burleson address young preachers, and I was not even a Christian myself, he took that for his text. He commenced by saying, “That is a great theme for a preacher. Evidently these Jews had not accomplished all those things. They were continually rebelling and wanting to go back, and yet you see them come out of Egypt, cross the Sea, come to Sinai, organized, fed, clothed, the sun kept off by day and darkness by night, marvellous victories accomplished and you are to say, ‘What God hath wrought!’ “
When the spiritual power comes on him he begins to look beyond anything he has ever done yet, to messianic days. There are few prophecies in the Bible more far-reaching than this last prophecy of Balaam. When he says of the Messiah, “I shall see him but not now,” it is a long way off. “My case is gone, but verily a star” the symbol of the star and sceptre carried out the thought of the power of the Messiah. So much did that prophecy impress the world that those Wise Men who came right from Balaam’s country when Jesus was born, remember this prophecy: “We have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
He then looks all around and there are the nations before him from that mountain top, and he prophesies about Moab and Amalek and passes on beyond, approaching even to look to nations yet unborn. He looks to the Grecian Empire arising far away in the future, further than anybody but Daniel. He sees the ships of the Grecians coming and the destruction of Asshur and the destruction of Eber, his own people. Then we come to the antitypical references later.
If you want a comparison of this man, take Simon Magus who wanted to purchase the power of the Holy Spirit so as to make money. That is even better than Judas, though Judas comes in. Judas had knowledge, was inspired, worked miracles, and yet Judas never saw the true kingdom of God in the spirit of holiness, and because he could not bring about the kingdom of which he would be treasurer for fifteen dollars he sold the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are the principal thoughts I wanted to add.
QUESTIONS
1. Who was Balaam?
2. How did he obtain his knowledge of God?
3. What was the sin of Balaam?
4. What was the climax of his sin?
5. What five sermons on Balaam are referred to? Give the line of thought in each.
6. Give Keble’s conception of Balaam.
7. What was the testimony sculptured on a rock?
8. Now give your own estimate of the character of Balaam.
9. How do you account for the first two prophecies?
10. How do you account for the other two?
11. In the first prophecy what does he show, what is he made to say and what does that show?
12. Give a brief analysis of the second prophecy.
13. Of what does the third prophecy consist?
14. Give the items of the fourth prophecy.
15. How did his messianic prophecy impress the world?
16. When was this prophecy concerning Amalek fulfilled? Ana. In the days of Saul. (1Sa 15 ).
17. Who was Asshur and what was his relation to the Kenites?
18. What reference here to the Grecians?
19. Who was Eber?
20. With what two New Testament characters may we compare?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Jud 1:2 . For the Salutation see my note on , Jas 1:1 , and Hort’s excellent note on 1Pe 1:2 , . We find and joined in Gal 6:16 , and with the addition of in 1Ti 1:2 , 2Ti 1:2 , 2Jn 1:3 . The mercy of God is the ground of peace, which is perfected in the feeling of God’s love towards them. The verb occurs in the Salutation both of 1 Peter and 2 Peter and in Dan 6:25 (in the letter of Darius), , cf. 1Th 3:12 , . (= the love of God) occurs also in the final salutation of 2 Cor. . , and in Eph. . . Cf. 1Jn 3:1 .), , where Westcott’s n. is “The Divine love is infused into them, so that it is their own, and becomes in them the source of a divine life (Rom 13:10 ). In virtue of this gift they are inspired with a love which is like the love of God, and by this they truly claim the title of children of God as partakers in His nature, 1Jn 4:7 ; 1Jn 4:19 .” The same salutation is used in the letter of the Smyrnaeans ( c . 156 A.D.) giving an account of the martyrdom of Polycarp, . . . The thought of and recurs again in Jud 1:21 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
unto = to.
love. App-135. The only salutation where “love” is mentioned.
multiplied. Compare 1Pe 1:2. 2Pe 1:2.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jud 1:2. , …, mercy, etc.) in a time of wretchedness. Hence it is that mercy is put in the first place: the mercy of Jesus Christ, Jud 1:21; peace, in the Holy Spirit, comp. Jud 1:20; love, of God, Jud 1:21. Here is a testimony concerning the Holy Trinity.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Reciprocal: Dan 6:25 – Peace Rom 1:7 – Grace Col 1:2 – Grace 1Pe 1:2 – be 2Pe 1:2 – Grace
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jud 1:2. To be multiplied means the blessings are to be very abundant.
1:3
Jud 1:3. The definition “thoughtful activity” has been offered the readers for the word diligence. Jude says he used it in writing this epistle which indicates its importance, also the trustworthiness of him as an author. Common salvation means a plan of salvation that is offered to all people alike, whether they be Jews or Gentiles. Earnestly contend. Both words are from EPAGONIZOMAI, which Thayer defines with the single word “contend”; it means that Christians should “face the foe” wherever he is met. The faith means the New Testament in which the common salvation is revealed. Once delivered to the saints. This denotes that the plan was put into the hands of men (who are saints; Christians) and that once is as often as it had to be revealed.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jud 1:2. Mercy unto you, and peace, and love. Mercy is used in the salutation of the pastoral epistles onlyexcept here. In Pauls view, those who minister in holy things specially need it, as in Judes view do those whom he addresses. Mercy is Gods feeling towards them; peace is their condition as the result of it; love is either their feeling Godward and manward as the effect of Gods grace (so it is in Eph 6:23), or it is Gods love to them that are called, in the manifold expressions of it (so it is in Jud 1:21, and in 2Co 13:14). This last view seems preferable; it is for the fulness of love he prays, as it is for abundance of mercy and peace.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
2. Mercy and peace and divine love be multiplied unto you. Here again we have spiritual mathematics in the prayer of Jude. Conversion is addition, adding life to a dead soul and a kingdom to a bankrupt spirit. Sanctification is subtraction, eliminating the sin principle out of the heart and making us holy. As sin is taken out to make room for grace, then we reach multiplication, in the wonderful incoming floods of the Holy Ghost, inundating our whole being and wafting us away in sea of glory. Now that we have a superabundance on hand, division normally follows, distributing the benefactions of salvation to all we meet. How deplorable to see teachers all around us standing in the pulpits, encumbered with the great responsibility of teaching Gods people in the school of Christ, when they themselves have never progressed beyond addition. What a contrast with the wisdom of the world, which positively requires a higher grade of scholarship.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
We need God’s mercy in view of our exceedingly sinful condition. We need His peace in view of the subtle and stimulating temptations that surround us on every hand. And we need His love to sustain and encourage us in our spiritual warfare. Jude’s readers needed all this help in view of the false teachers’ influence, which he proceeded to discuss.
"They are not self-acquired Christian virtues, but the gifts of God, which, the author prays, may be abundantly bestowed upon his readers. Nevertheless, by a divine alchemy, the gifts of God are transformed into human characteristics." [Note: J. W. C. Wand, The General Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude, p. 196.]