But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” – Jude 1:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 13, 2018): Jude 1

Sometime during the First Century C.E., someone sat down and wrote a story of Moses. We only know of the story from its appearance in other documents and a partial copy of the work dating from the sixth century C.E. It might be that the story was written with fragments of tales about Moses that had been told around campfires from family to family down through the generations, and while parts of the story might be of ancient origin, it appears that the story was added to with each passing generation. The story is supposed to be a prophecy that Moses gave to Joshua about what would happen next. The story relates the history of Israel from the death of Moses to the time of Herod the Great and his sons, and this history is recorded in the form of a prophecy. In the end, Moses encourages Joshua not to fear what was going to happen, but rather to understand that all of this is part of God’s plan for his people. The resulting work has been called the “Testament of Moses” or the “Assumption of Moses” (and even here we aren’t really sure if these are two works or different names for the same piece of writing).

Then the author uses another ancient tradition to describe the end of Moses life. According to the Bible account, Moses went up on a mountain alone as the people of Israel crossed over the Jordan River and into the Promised Land. Moses died alone on the mountain. Because he died alone, there was no one present to take care of his body after death, and so God sent the archangel Michael to be the gravedigger for Moses. Apparently, as Michael digs the grave of Moses, he comes into a dispute with Satan. Maybe the dispute was over the idea that God would care for someone like Moses, we really don’t know, but during the dispute, Michael rebukes Satan with the words “The Lord rebuke you.”

It is this work that Jude is referring to and the inclusion of this into Jude’s letter and then subsequently into the Christian Testament presents us with an interesting problem. The Assumption of Moses holds no authority in either Christianity or Judaism. The book is regarded as just some unknown person’s rambling, and it is not considered to be inspired by God. The question that we are presented with is this – should Jude’s reference to the work increase the authority of the work. This is a dilemma for anyone who holds a very literal interpretation of the Bible. If you interpret the Bible literally, then this reference in Jude should mean that Michael actually did act as the gravedigger for Moses, even though that idea is presented nowhere in the accepted canonical books of either the Jewish Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) or the Christian Testament, with the exception of here in Jude’s letter. If this reference to this obscure book is rejected, then we can’t interpret everything in the Bible literally.

While this is a significant problem for some, it really shouldn’t be. The best solution is that we try to understand the underlying principle that Jude is trying to illustrate, which is that even the archangel Michael did not think that he had the power to rebuke Satan, and so he said “The Lord rebuke you” rather than rebuking Satan on his own authority. And Michael does not consider it right to rebuke Satan on his authority, then neither should we rebuke Satan on our authority, but rather place that power where it belongs, in the hands of our God. This is God’s message through Jude to us, and the rest is just a parable.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 John 1