Study in the Epistle of Jude # 31: Verse 7

by Chris McCann

EBible Fellowship (http://www.ebiblefellowship.com)

Welcome to the Electronic Bible Fellowship’s Bible study. We are currently going through the book of Jude. We have come to verse 7, which speaks about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and we have been taking a look at how God uses these cities in the Bible.

Recently, we have begun looking at Genesis 19, where we read about the historical destruction of the city Sodom. We saw that the men of Sodom were extremely wicked and had compassed Lot’s house where the two angels had found shelter. We also saw that these two angels were a representation of God Himself. God was appearing as these two men, or these two angels as they are called, in the city Sodom. God had visited Sodom to see if what He had seen from Heaven was true.

Of course, God knew exactly what was going on in Sodom all the time. He did not have to come down in the person of these two angels, these two men, and actually visit the city to know what was going on. God knows the hearts of every individual (1 Kings 8:39). He, in appearing to Sodom, is letting us know that this was the time of their visitation.

That kind of language is important in the Bible, because when God speaks of visiting His people, it normally has to do with His judgment upon them. For example, in Luke 19:41-44 the Lord Jesus Christ said:

And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

The Lord Jesus Christ, eternal God, had taken upon Himself the form of a man. He became man and entered into the human race. He walked among His people, yet His people knew it not (John 1:10-11). They knew not the time of their visitation. There was Christ in the flesh. There was the Word of God dwelling among them (John 1:14), yet they were ignorant of His presence. They knew that there was a man called Jesus, but they did not know that He was eternal God. So it happens that God, in visiting His people, brought about their destruction, because national Israel would cease to be the people of God forever when Jesus went to the Cross and the veil of the temple was rent in twain (Matthew 27:51).

Now God visits Sodom. He is seeking out His people. He is seeking those true believers who are within the city. He is seeking out the righteous who are made righteous by His grace. In so doing, He is led to Lot and his family. In Genesis 19:9-11, where the men of Sodom are speaking to Lot, we read:

And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

We have an interesting picture here. We see this mob that is hostile to Lot and to these strangers who came to visit Sodom. They are ready to do violence to Lot. They are banging against his door and pressing upon it to knock it down. If the door falls, then these men will certainly rush in and do whatever they please with Lot and his daughters and these strangers who have come to town.

The situation is very dangerous here. It is a violent mob that has compassed round about Lot’s house. Then God intervenes. He comes to the rescue of Lot as these visiting men put forth their hand and pull Lot into the house and shut the door. The mob is not able at that point to break into the house. The door has been shut.

Now God acts even further to ensure that the mob will not enter into Lot’s house, as verse 11 says:

And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

What a picture this is! Can you imagine an angry mob that is doing whatever it pleases in a city where there is no law? If they desire to break down doors and carry people away or do whatever else they please, they can do it. Yet now God strikes them with blindness. We have confusion now; we have an angry mob that suddenly cannot see.

This is very similar to what happened to the Apostle Paul when he was on his way to Damascus. Paul was a very angry man. He was exceedingly mad at the early Christians and was seeking to do harm to those who were of that “way” (Acts 9:1-2). He was on his way to take some of them and throw them into prison and force them to confess that Christ was a false prophet. Then on the road to Damascus, God struck Paul with blindness. Immediately, he is helpless; he cannot see. He has to stop in his pursuit of the Christians. Now he is in a terrible predicament. He is on a road and he cannot see.

In the end, God worked this out for Paul’s good and it turned out to be a great blessing in his life. However, here with these men in Genesis 19, there is no good intended at all. This is a judgment of God. It is God striking these men with blindness where we never read that they end up seeing again. They are blind and they cannot find the door.

Here we have a picture of many men wandering to and fro about this house, reaching out their hands to seek the door. They are trying to locate the door somehow so that they might enter into the house. It is still their desire to get into the house. However, they cannot. God has made it an impossibility for them to enter into the house where Lot and his family are located. They cannot go through the door.

Why is this important? When we read about blindness in the Bible, normally, if not always, it has to do with spiritual blindness. That is the picture that God is developing here. He has struck these men of Sodom with spiritual blindness. Let us remember that, as we have seen through several Scriptures, Sodom typifies the church; and in Revelation 11, it typifies more than the church—Sodom typifies the church during the time of the Great Tribulation. Therefore, we can learn from this historical parable in Genesis 19 that the church, during the days of the Great Tribulation, will be struck with blindness. They will be wandering about to find the door, wearying themselves, trying their best and hardest to find the door, yet they will be unable to locate it.

What does “the door” represent? What does it typify? What is the spiritual meaning of “the door” in the Bible? This is not a very difficult thing for us to find out. We read in John 10:9:

I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

We see how significant this is. God does not write anything in the Bible by chance or by accident. He does not say in John 10 that the Lord Jesus Christ is “the door” for no purpose. He wants us to know when we read Genesis 19 that the dead church of the Great Tribulation will not be able to find “the door,” the Lord Jesus Christ. They will not find “the door” through which anyone who entered would become saved. In other words, there will be no salvation in Sodom. There will be no salvation in the church of the Great Tribulation. Instead, there will be spiritual blindness so those individuals will weary themselves to find “the door.”

Is that not the case today? Is that not what we find in the church world of our day? As we look at all the gospels out there, it is mass confusion. There are all sorts of efforts to find salvation and all kinds of individuals who are teaching methods to get right with God. In a real way, they are wearying themselves. They are out-doing themselves with their far-out ideas in order to find “the door” to salvation.

However, they are nowhere near salvation. You would think that they, perhaps by accident, might stumble upon it. You would think that since there are so many of these blind men around Lot’s house and since they have the house surrounded, just by chance, one of them might accidentally tumble into the door. However, they cannot even accomplish that. God is working against them. When God blinds an individual or a church, they are in great darkness so that they cannot see—they will not find “the door,” they will not come to salvation.

We read what God is doing here in different language in 2 Thessalonians 2. Earlier in the chapter, the man of sin had taken his seat in the temple. We read a little further on, in verses 9-12:

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

God will actively work against those who are in the churches during the Great Tribulation. He will send them strong delusion.