Now we all know from the account given of Moses, both in Exodus and Numbers, how constantly the children of Israel were contending with him, murmuring against him, speaking evil of him—hating Moses, really, and Aaron too. And it was only the power of God interfering every now and then that alarmed them, and cut them down, and compelled them at any rate to pay outward respect. But directly he was dead the same devil that stirred them up against Moses when he was alive—Oh! what would he not have given for that dead body! The dead body would have been made a relic. You know very well that that is a favorite idea of men—the dead body would have been made an object of worship. The devil would, therefore, have gained doubly. First, by setting them at war with him while alive, and still more when he was dead by making them idolaters of Moses. So that we can easily understand why it was that the Lord buried the body Himself But it appears that before he was buried there was this contention between Michael the archangel and the devil about Moses' dead body; so perfectly in keeping with the mysterious manner in which Jehovah buried him where none should know, and where even if Satan was allowed to know, God interfered that Michael should guard that grave—that Michael should hinder all the efforts of the devil to get hold of that dead body. So we have the two facts: what is here told us by Jude, and the fact of the 34th of Deuteronomy, where we have the account of the—Lord's burying Moses—which he never did for any other man. Show me only a, single case of the Lord's burying any one. I don't remember one but that of Moses, and there were special reasons why Jehovah should secretly bury that dead body rather than any other.
There never was a man that exercised so remarkable a position towards a whole people as Moses did to the children of Israel, and now that he was gone a reaction would take place under the devil, not in the least a reaction of faith, but of unbelief, to idolize that very body, the same man that they continually plagued while living.
So that the fact as here brought before us goes along with another fact to which I have just now referred in the Old Testament (the two perfectly tally), that there were special reasons in the case of Moses' dead body why the Lord should interfere; and now we learn from this passage in Jude a very interesting fact, not about the Lord, but about the enemy and the one whom Jehovah thought proper to use. Now, there are others of great weight in heaven besides Michael. Gabriel stands in the presence of God, and as we know was employed for a very important mission by God. It was not Michael, but Gabriel very particularly, who was used in announcing the birth of our Lord Jesus, and we can perfectly understand why Gabriel should be employed rather than Michael. Michael is the prince that stands up for the Jewish people. Yes, but the Gospel of Luke shows the Lord Jesus born of woman, not merely for the Jewish people, but for man— “God's good pleasure in men,” not merely in Jews: and therefore it is not that particular angel, Michael; it was not he that was employed on that occasion. So that it appears to me that there was divine wisdom in Gabriel being employed on that mission rather than Michael; and that this is true, surely is very evident to anyone that will read the 11th and 12th chapters of the book of Daniel. I just refer to it now, because it is of importance in showing the harmony of Scripture, and that even in the most extraordinary event that is only once recorded, showing principles of divine truth that support, and fall in, and harmonize, with that which was only revealed once. That is what I wish to show now.
Well, in the latter part of the 10th chapter of Daniel (indeed, as well as the 11th chapter), ver. 20, we read, “Then said he” (this is the angel that had to do with Daniel), “Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia.” There you see it is not quite an unusual thing for angels to contend. Here we have it in still stronger language: “To fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia, shall come.”
Now, we shall find a little intimation who and what these princes were in the next verse: “But I will show thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.”
We learn here that Michael was pre-eminently the prince of Israel. In what sense? Not as reigning visibly, but as invisibly espousing the cause of the Jewish people. Now see how that falls in with Michael guarding the dead body of Moses, with his being employed by God to contend with the great enemy, so that there should be no misuse made of that dead body. Who had so preeminently this duty as the prince of Israel? And as to the angel that was speaking with Daniel, of whom we read a good deal in the previous part of the chapter in so highly interesting a manner and the most glowing colors—he says, “there is none that holdeth with me in these things” —that is, in opposing the princes of Grecia and Persia. Why? It appears that the princes of Grecia and Persia were not favorable to the Jewish people. In the same way they had interests connected with Greece and Persia that were opposed to the Jewish people; and in the providence of God the angels are referred to here—angels are the great instruments of providence, the unseen working of God is carried out instrumentally by angels. That is true now. We are all very much cared for by the angels, more than we are apt to think. Speaking of them in Hebrews (chap. 1:14): “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” We are indebted to the angels now. I don't say it is Michael or Gabriel, but I do say that the angels are acting a special part at this present time in Christianity for all the heirs of salvation. You see at this time, in Daniel, it was not so much a question about the heirs of salvation; it was a question of the Jewish people. They were the great object of God's care in their fallen estate. They had been most guilty, but they were beloved. They were carried into captivity by the Babylonian power. And they were going to be the slaves of other powers on the earth; but for all that, Michael stood up for them and this other angel who speaks to the prophet Daniel. There were also other angels that were opposed, whom they had to fight.
Well, people may say, that is all very mysterious. Indeed it is, dear brethren. It is not, therefore, incredible, but of very great moment, that we should have our hearts and minds open to believe what we don't see. There is nothing that adds more to the simplicity of a believer than his having his faith exercised upon the things that are unseen as well as those that are eternal, and we ought to feel our indebtedness to God.
Now if you want a proof even in detail as to this take the 8th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. There you find that the angel tells Philip to go in a certain direction, and he does; and then we find the Spirit speaks. Not the angel, but the Spirit. I had better refer to it, because there is nothing like the Scripture for its precision. Now, in that chapter we read in the 26th verse: “And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.” There were two roads, it appears. One was through a populous part of the land, and the other was desert. Well, a desert is not the place an evangelist would choose. The angel, therefore, acting in the providence of God, says to Philip: “You go that desert road.” And it is one of the beautiful features of Philip, that he was not a reasoner. Reason is an excellent thing for men who have not got the word of God, and I don't say that there may not be useful reasoning outside divine things, what you may call common sense. But I do say this, that the more the believer can act on divine principles at all times, the better for his soul, and the more to the praise of the Lord. If he is sometimes acting, like a man of the world, on his common sense, and at another time acting on the word of God—as a believer, he is in danger of being practically two different persons. And when a man plays the game of two personalities he is very apt to become a hypocrite; there will be a want of reality about the man. We ought only to have one personality. We are bought with a price, not merely for our religious matters but for everything We don't belong to ourselves, we are the Lord's; and therefore the more a believer can rise above merely what he will do as a man to that which he loves to do as a saint—the more entirely he keeps to this only—so much the more consistent is he with his profession as a child of God. For why should it not be so? What is to hinder his being a saint in anything at all? Cannot he be a saint when serving in his shop? Cannot he be a saint when in his office? Surely he might, and ought to be. There is nothing to hinder that, if he were lively in faith and has the Lord before him. But if, on the contrary he only looks at the shop or the office— “Well, now,” he says, “it is not Sunday, nor is it the meeting now; I go there as a man.” So there it is. How can he expect anything like faith, or grace, care for Christ and His glory, if that is the case? I deny entirely that we may not be servants of Christ in the commonest things of this life; and that is what, I think, we have all especially to pray for. Of course, we need to pray that we behave as a saint when we come into the assembly, and when we find ourselves at a meeting of any kind; but why we should be off our saintship when we go into business or anything else is another matter, and a very dangerous line to pursue.
Now then, here you see that we have the angel of the Lord providentially dealing with Philip, and Philip acts upon it at once. He doesn't say, “Ah, I shall not be able to get a congregation, and at any rate I don't like a little one; I want to have a big one.” And so it is, he has not a word about little or big; he was not going to have a congregation. He must be content with one single soul. That soul is precious, beyond all calculation, to God, if not even to himself. What would all the world be to one if the soul were lost, as the Lord Himself told men, and which they still refuse to believe?
Well, then, the angel gives him this word and he hears, and goes without a question. But when he was there—in this road, “this way that goeth down from Jerusalem” —here it was that this Ethiopian stranger in his chariot was met, returning from Jerusalem, and reading the prophet Isaiah. He was not now going up to Jerusalem to get a blessing there. He may have looked for and prayed for that, but he didn't get it there. He was returning from Jerusalem unblest, going away from that city, and that was just what the gospel was doing. It was leaving Jerusalem, driven out by unbelief, and this poor Jewish proselyte was going away unblest by the gospel in that city, for he hadn't found a blessing there. There was a persecution going on there against it. And now, returning, he was reading in his chariot. “Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.” Now, why is it the Spirit here? Because it was what concerned the word of God and the soul. The angel said not a word about the soul of the Ethiopian. I don't know that the angel knew anything about it. The angel had to do with the bidding of God, “Tell that man to go by the road that is a desert.” He acted on it; the angel was right, and Philip was right, but it was entirely providential. And now comes the spiritual part, and the Holy Ghost interposes here.
Well, now we have not the angel speaking and the Holy Ghost speaking, but we have the angels acting. We perhaps don't know how it is, but an angel interposes many a time when, if there had not been that interposition, we should have been killed; to prevent us going in that way. We often go where we had no intention of going, or don't go where we meant to go. When I say often, I mean sometimes; throughout our lives it would really bear the word “often”; but from time to time there is no man but what does what he never intended to do, perhaps through an impulse given him; he can't tell how or why, and he goes this way, when he meant to have gone that way.
Here, however, we find that there is another kind of guidance of a more spiritual nature for the soul, prompting (so to speak) the soul to give a word for the Lord. Do you suppose there is no such a thing now? Such an idea is well for people who don't believe that the Holy Ghost is come, and that to abide. He is still here. It is put in this chapter in an open objective form, but it is meant to teach us that the same thing is now true, although it does not come out openly in the same manner. It is quite true, and this is not the only case. If you compare the 12th chapter of the Acts with the 13th you will see an angel acting in the one chapter, and the Spirit acting in the next. I only mention it because the Acts of the Apostles is surely a history of Christianity, a history of Christians, of what Christians have been used for, and what they are meant to live in. Well, then, here we find, when it was not a question of Christians or the gospel, but of nations and people, the part that the angels play—not merely the holy ones but the unholy ones. That is the very thing that we find at the grave of Moses, and about that same people Israel. Michael is the prince that stands up for them against the efforts of the enemy against them; and this entirely confirms the principles of God's word. They are entirely in favor of this extraordinary revelation that is made in the 9th verse of Jude, and are found to quite support and confirm it in the highest degree.
Now, I refer to. another scripture, before we go, further, in the third chapter of Zechariah. It is a. very interesting removal of the veil that we might, see the unseen. In this chapter we read these words: “And he showed me” (that is, the angel showed him) “Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Jehovah, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him” (ver. 1). There you have the same opposition again. In this case, however, it is the “angel of Jehovah.” I should be disposed to distinguish that from Michael. The “angel of Jehovah” is altogether peculiar. The angel of Jehovah is rather the way in which the Lord Jesus is referred to in the Old Testament—not the only way, but a very usual way. The angel of Jehovah, every now and then, is shown to be Jehovah Himself. I don't mean that He is the only person that is Jehovah. As we read in Deut. 6:44Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: (Deuteronomy 6:4), “Jehovah our God is one Jehovah,” that is, it is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who are the one God that we acknowledge as Christians. They are all three Jehovah, they are all equally Jehovah, and it therefore helps us to understand why He is viewed as “the Angel of Jehovah.” He is Jehovah too, though not the only One that is called Jehovah. That explains what we have here: “He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Jehovah, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And Jehovah” (notice that after speaking of “the angel of Jehovah” it is now “Jehovah")— “And Jehovah said unto Satan, Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan” —the very words that Michael uses to Satan as reported by Jude!
Well, is not this a very strong confirmation of not only this remarkable opposition between the holy angels and the unholy ones; but also Satan's? We find this antagonism in both scriptures precisely alike. Even Jehovah Himself, instead of merely taunting Satan, says, “Jehovah rebuke thee.” The time was not yet for the most terrible rebuke to come, as it will unmistakably when he shall be trodden under foot. He has to be bound for a thousand years in the abyss; he has to be cast into the lake of fire. All these will be part of the ways in which Jehovah will rebuke him; but that is what He says here. What you have in God is, He guards His own purpose; He does not allow Satan to interfere with His purpose. He allows man to show out his insensibility and his sin, and He chastises him. He does not yet put forth His power to deal with Satan as He will do; but there is that word, “Jehovah rebuke thee,” as He surely will. It is a continual warning from Jehovah, which will be accomplished in its own day, and in various places and various stages. But you can easily see that it would be unseemly to have a mere dispute going on between Jehovah and Satan; and all, therefore, that He puts forth is this solemn warning of what is coming.
Well, the angel repeats that to Satan in a very early day, and here, a thousand years after, you have the same truth, the same antagonism even, if not the same persons exactly; but the same spirit all through.
Scripture is perfectly consistent, perfectly reliable. And although Jude was the first one that brought out this fact, it falls in with the other facts of Scripture: both in the early days of Moses, in the later of Zechariah, and now in the days of the gospel, in the days of Christianity.
So that nothing can be more complete than the proof that these learned critics are totally ignorant of God, totally ignorant of the Bible, except of the mere surface, the mere letter that kills and not the spirit that quickens.
Well, here then you see how beautiful it is that instead of bringing a railing accusation, Michael simply warns Satan with the solemn words: “Jehovah rebuke thee” — “The Lord rebuke thee.” What would railing do? If there are two people railing, a good and a bad man, and the bad man's railing provokes the good man to rail, the good man goes down to the level of the bad. It does not at all diminish the railing of the other. I should think at any time that a bad man could gain a good degree over the good man in the way of railing. Surely, he is much more practiced, and very likely more unscrupulous and more malicious, and therefore it sounds stronger to the ear of man But, you see, that would be a total lowering of even an angel, and how much more of a saint, I might Say. But here we have the beautiful conduct of the angel as a pattern to the saint, that we be not provoked, nor, when we are reviled, revile again, but as the Lord acted Himself. He committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously. Well, that is what Jehovah will do; He will judge righteously, but the time is not yet come.